The present disclosure relates to an encoder that compression-codes an image and transmits the compression-coded image, a decoder that decodes the compression-coded image, an encoder system constituted of a plurality of encoders, a decoder system constituted of a plurality of decoders, a transmission adapter connected to an encoder for use, an encoding method, a decoding method, and an imaging apparatus with a built-in encoder.
Along with transition to terrestrial digital broadcast, digital high-definition broadcast is becoming rapidly widespread. In addition, in recent years, the broadcast of a 3D high-definition video has also been common. Transmission of a 3D high-definition video is realized by, for example, synchronizing and transmitting two left and right video streams captured with two synchronous high-definition cameras by using two channels of the digital high-definition broadcast (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-266497 (paragraph and FIG. 1)).
Although current high-definition data is defined as an image of 1920×1080 pixels, in order to support ultra slow motion and ultra-high-resolution high-definition videos having a further higher resolution, such as a 4K image constituted of about 4000×2000 pixels and an 8K image constituted of about 8000×4000 pixels, there has appeared a technique for next-generation high-definition videos such as an ultra-fast high-definition video at a frame rate of 120 fps or 240 fps and a wide-angle video obtained by stitching high-definition videos captured with a plurality of HDV (High-Definition Video) cameras.